Tables Turned! Local Church Serves CSM

Shades Mountain Baptist church members and missionaries spent
a Saturday morning serving CSM!

Every February more than 300 Shades Mountain Baptist Church members transform our campus with the intention to serve us at the Mission. This event is a lot of fun and in a few short hours large projects and campus improvements are tackled and accomplished, and every year we are amazed and honored to be a part of such a special serve day.

Shades Serve Day is a part of their GIC, Global Initiative Conference, where they bring their missionaries in to be loved on, encouraged, and fed. Serve Day brings the missionaries and Shades members together to to serve. Tracy Hipps, our Executive Director, is one of the missionaries sent out from Shades so it makes this day extra sweet.

 Some of the projects they have worked on are helping build our greenhouses and workshop, they have painted our building outside and inside, dug trenches, cleared land, landscaped, torn down walls and built walls, moved large racks in our zero degree freezer, scraped metal finishes and painted them, tilled and planted the gardens, and so much more. All of these projects serve our small staff of 10 and multiply the work we could get done.

The volunteers come with a servant spirit and laughter is heard throughout the morning. We love seeing their smiling faces each year as we watch our campus transform.

338 servant hearts listening to Tracy talk about their gift of service to us

Making old spaces new and usable

It’s Spring and time to ready the garden for planting! 

Even the smallest hands help us create a new space in the garden

Making teacher resource bags for a partner church to handout

Bundling diapers with Bundles of Hope to share God’s love with Moms in need

Writing (and coloring) scripture cards to encourage the teachers receiving resource bags

Giving our walls a fresh coat of Extra White to brighten up the space

Happy faces eating popsicles after their hard work!

Cooking Well Coffee Hour at eMeals

Cooking together to capture the experience we create for Cooking Well students

This past week we introduced Cooking Well to community and faith leaders at the eMeals Headquarters in the test kitchen for coffee and dessert while various aspects of the collaboration between CSM, eMeals and Samford were illuminated. Twenty women gathered around the kitchen island to experience cooking together in the same fashion as a CW class and began to see how that non-threatening environment fosters immediate camaraderie. With the aroma of dark chocolate and honey filling the room, everyone waited for the dessert to cook while listening to a nutritional presentation by Samford graduate intern, Carolyn Copenhaver. Then all were treated to a hot-out-of-the-oven (Paleo) lava cake and coffee as a vision for unity in the city was cast.

Friends came together and new friendships
were forged around the mixing bowls

Leveraging Christian Service Mission’s multiple strong relationships with and access to the underserved communities of Birmingham and partnership with the Nutrition and Dietetics Department of Samford University, Cooking Well is a collaboration with eMeals, Inc. and now a fully operational hands-on cooking course.
The program is designed to teach cooking skills, nutrition and the importance of family-centered meals, while aiming to unite people in our city and break cultural barriers.

Many of our class participants live in food deserts, and we have encountered participants facing serious health concerns including cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, diabetes and hypertension. Most participants have expressed a sincere hunger for nutritional and healthful food preparation knowledge. During the class, the participants are introduced to new tastes, ideas, cooking techniques, and important life skills that would lead them to eat more healthfully and make better food choices to nourish their families.

Each six-week session culminates in a graduation dinner where the participants are recognized with a certificate of achievement. Gathering around a cook surface to prepare food and then enjoying the food we prepared is unifying in unexpected ways. Week after week, we witness the uniting power of food and conversation around the table— listening and learning from each other.

Fresh produce and herbs from the CSM gardens and aquaponics greenhouses are available to the program when in season. Groceries and necessary items for each class are purchased with benevolent funds. As the program grows to reach more communities, we are looking to expand our sponsorship and volunteer base and hope to build a teaching kitchen on the Christian Service Mission campus. You are invited to join us at the table as well!

Contact Cooking Well Director, Judy Vann, for more information:  Judy@csmission.org   205|563|6203

Mixing and mingling in the eMeals kitchen before we began the evening

Jenny Cochran, "The heart and soul of eMeals is to strengthen the family,
and we believe that Cooking Well is doing that as well."

The cooking commenced - Paleo Chocolate Lava Cakes for dessert

Paula and Charlot have the recipe for a happy evening

Cooking Well instructor, Allie Sanderson
and CSM's Jamie Barnhart

CSM Food Ministry takes on 2018!

CSM helped Son Light Outreach served over 3,700 families during the holidays

As we wrapped up 2017, Christian Service Mission was on track to expand even more in the coming year and to serve more and more people in our many partner communities.

In the month of December, CSM stayed very active in these communities and was involved in a number of ministries that are lifting their communities in the context of relationship and responsible care. In the spirit of connecting our time and the abundant resources God has provided us, we are able to work with our strategic partners to make this Christmas season special for those in our community. The STAIR program, spearheaded by Norman and Janet Dickson, partnered with Fresh Air Farms and Highland Presbyterian Church to deliver Christmas food baskets to students and their families.

In this time of abundance, we need to remember those who are without. Through our partnership with Son Light Ministries, over 3,700 families were served in Chilton, Dallas, Perry, and Wilcox counties. Christian Service Mission brought food and other supplies by the truck load to those in need during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. From our partnership with the Mayor’s Office, Christian Service Mission was able to provide food for two employees. Both of the employees were incredibly thankful for this blessing of food and time with their families.

Distribution to families struggling with
food security in Selma, Alabama

Christian Service Mission was able to help another partner over 2017 by providing weekly snacks to those involved in many different ministries and organizations. Throughout the year, Christian Service Mission provided snacks to Workshops trainee programs. Workshops provides a variety of vocational training for people with disabilities and believe that everyone has something to contribute to our community. In the spirit of giving, we partnered with St. Mary’s Episcopal, Regenerate Society Ministry, and Pathway’s Women Shelter to provide snack food items as well as Christmas gifts, winter clothes, and toiletries to those in need in our community.

Looking forward to 2018, Christian Service Mission is staying busy and will continue to link resources with need in the Birmingham community. We have our annual Mother’s Day Event as well as Thankserving Events to look forward to this year. Our partnership with Pepper Place and The Farmers Market will continue to bring fresh produce to those who are food insecure and living in food deserts in Birmingham. The food drives from our partnerships with local businesses and schools will provide vital food supplies to those in the area. Generous donations of snack food, as well as food coming from our own aquaponic and hydroponic gardens, will be used in a variety of programs including the STAIR summer program and other summer camps in the area.

Thank you for your support of Christian Service Mission’s Food Ministry in 2017. In 2018, we hope to continue to be the Lord’s hands and feet in the Birmingham area and to continue to love all, serve all, and connect the resources available to us with the needs of the people in Birmingham.

Students from Penn State helping with food distribution

Ready to serve residents on fixed income at
Princeton Towers

Cooking Well with Bethel in Samford’s Teaching Kitchens

First Cooking Well class held in the Samford teaching kitchens for Bethel Baptist

The Cooking Well program continues to expand into more communities and in the partnership with Samford University’s Nutrition and Dietetic Department. The groundwork and fundamentals of the program have been laid during this past year with the assistance of dedicated and energized undergraduate nutrition interns, and with crucial research and development contributions from graduate students in their Dietetic Internship rotation.

CSM's Jamie Leo with
Samford's Dr. Pat Terry(r)

Samford faculty has invested time and energy to allocate students whose passions and study-focus line up with our objectives, and to pave the way for the Cooking Well program to be held in one of the teaching kitchen spaces housed in the new Health Science Building (former Southern Living/Cooking Light test kitchens). This opportunity allows the class participants to learn cooking techniques and culinary skills in the multiple kitchen stations, along with a high level of nutrition education.

The pilot session at Samford has been a great success, with a leadership team from Bethel Baptist Church in Collegeville brought to the program by Pastor Thomas Wilder’s wife, Mechelle. The class was taught and facilitated by Samford nutrition students, CSM staff and volunteers. Dr. Patricia Terry, Samford Nutrition Professor who opened the kitchen labs to CSM, spoke to encourage and honor the participants at the graduation dinner where certificates were awarded. Pat shared the premise— and gave each graduate a copy— of her book, “Made for Paradise,” which paints a picture of God’s original plan for healthy eating, physical activity and rest.

Mechelle Wilder speaks at graduation

eMeals co-founder, Jenny Cochran, inspired us with her healthy and happy family perspective, and Mechelle Wilder challenged everyone with the story of her life and faith journey. Mechelle and her team of amazing ladies are now casting a vision with the ladies of their church to bring Cooking Well into the North Birmingham community surrounding the church.

"We would like to thank the Christian Service Mission and Samford University for hosting Bethel Baptist Church of Collegeville in the 6-week cooking class. We were all thrilled to be instructed in cooking healthy meals in a premier commercial cooking kitchen. We are also so grateful for the fun, fellowship and new friendships established from the classes."
                                  Mechelle Wilder and class participants

If you are interested in learning more about Cooking Well, please contact Judy Vann | judy@csmission.org.

Allie Sanderson immediately makes everyone
comfortable and excited to learn

Samford Nutrition interns helping Allie plate the meal

Samford interns helping to make the logistics work...

... and wash the dishes!

Fresh and healthy cooking techniques 

A happy and welcoming environment

Jamie Leo and Kirsten Agee from CSM brought their mad culinary skills 

Jane DeLaney, eMeals founder, joins in the class

'Chef' Janice Vickers

Nutrition class time with Dietetic Intern, Caitlyn Sloane

Fresh herbs from the CSM gardens

Washing lettuces harvested from the CSM hydroponic greenhouse

Commensality every week!

Graduates of the six-week program received a framed certificate,
a Cooking Well apron, a copy of Dr. Terry's book, and a one-year
eMeals subscription given by co-founder Jenny Cochran(r)

Graduation dinner by candlelight

Mechelle Wilder received her Cooking Well Certificate
and graduation gifts with smiles all around